A Surprise Addition...

THE WANDERING WAYFARER

            We headed up towards north to enjoy a day filled with crafting art at a beautiful home up near Red Bluff, CA. Recharging our creative spirit surrounded by creative and fun people (and enjoying some great food too) was our plan. To say the day was “fun” is a bit of an understatement but to be sure fun, food and fellowship was had!

            We were blessed to hear a story about a horse who wandered on to our host’s property. He literally was out standing in their back field munching on grass and looking a bit lost. Being the awesome folks our hosts are, they took in this horse (they have horses so they were set up to take in this wanderer) and attempted to find his humans. No one came forward. These great folks had him checked out by a vet to be sure all is well with his health (he seemed to be healthy) and well-being. They got some good weight on him and have been contemplating what to do with him next. At best guest he is a Mustang-Morgan cross and probably in his middle to late teens. The folks have done some work with him but really did not want to do any “training” with him just yet until they decided what to do with him.

            Enter us. We took a break from creating with ink and paint and headed out to the pen to meet this fellow. He seemed friendly, curious and mellow. We introduced ourselves and then did some “off the lead line” work in the small arena. He checked stuff out, played around at different gaits and was generally showing us that, yes indeed, he was in fact a horse. We used position and a little pressure here and there to create movement and see what this fellow was all about. When his attention was on the human in the arena we “said hello” again and got him to follow a little bit. That is always a fun moment. Then we tossed on a halter and lead rope. We did a variety of exercises and “listened” to what he had to say. He had some very clear holes in his foundation and some stubbornness/ resistance on a few points. This was expected given his story up to this point. He demonstrated his opinion in some of his actions and postures which clearly told us he has not had clear leadership and consistent expectations in his past. Our hosts seemed to concur with our assessment. We all felt that given a “tune-up/restart” this fellow could be a really nice horse for an intermediate level horse-person who understands the “Mustang mind” and is willing to take a little time to help make the partnership strong.

            It was really fun to meet this nice fellow and have a conversation to see what he is all about. He will make someone a really nice partner and we hope to meet him again.